Walking in South Knoxville: Another One Bites the Dust

Y’all, I’m getting so excited! Emily and I finished another section of Urban Wilderness Trails last weekend. We look to be on track to get our badges before the end of the year. And really, we will have walked way more than 40 miles, since walking all of them necessarily entails walking some of them more than once.
This time we finished up the William Hastie trails, which is actually where we began this project back in May. Let me come right out and say that these are probably my least favorite trails. There’s nothing wrong with them; they just aren’t as interesting to me personally as many of the others. These pictures below show something pretty interesting and actually downright terrifying, though:
Unfortunately the photos don’t really do it justice, but that’s a sinkhole. A gigantic scary deep sinkhole. The first trail off the parking lot is named Sinkhole for a reason. As you walk you’ll see a trail off to your right that leads right up to the edge of that. We were too scared to get close enough for a good picture, but we saw evidence that some adventurous (insane?) people had been climbing down into the thing. To which I say, they are welcome to it.
Moving right along, we enjoyed the cool fall weather. Walking three miles in the fall is a whole lot different than doing the same hike when it’s 90 degrees. There are trade offs, though–no wildflowers, or at least not many. Still, we had this instead:
See the collapsing boards in the second picture, though? That particular bridge (not a bridge, exactly–a raised path over an area prone to mud) was rotting right through. No big problem when you are walking, but it could be dangerous for an inattentive mountain biker. Looking at some of the trails they bike on intentionally, though, I imagine they’d probably just look at it as another challenge!
I always have to take a couple of path pictures when we walk:
I’m really pleased with the way that bottom one turned out. I wasn’t sure my iPhone would be able to pick up that tunnel effect.
Most of the Hastie trails are through the woods, but the main trail (Margaret Road) was originally a KUB access road and was kept cleared. In fact, there’s one part that in the summer was a meadow festooned with wildflowers:
That same part is now a somewhat chilly desert with no plant life in sight. But the absence of trees allowed us to appreciate the blue sky. Have you ever noticed that the sky in autumn is a deeper, more intense blue?
Remember, if you don’t have time to get up to the mountains to enjoy the fall colors, the Urban Wilderness is much closer!For more South Knoxville walks, see below:Walking in South Knoxville IWalking in South Knoxville IIWalking in South Knoxville IIIWalking in South Knoxville IVWalking in South Knoxville VWalking in South Knoxville VIWalking in South Knoxville VII

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I feel pretty good when I read this list.~ A Grandparent’s Wisdom on Parenting ~

1. Let your child be a child. Children are not little adults.

2. Don’t have too many rules, especially when they’re little. They’re not going to remember them all anyway.

3. Pick your battles. It won’t work to make an issue out of everything your child does that you don’t like.

4. The greatest gift you can give your child besides your love is your time. Whenever possible, interrupt what you are doing to take time for them. Many things you need to do can be put off until later but many things your child does only happen once, and you don’t want to miss them.

5. Don’t micromanage your child’s behavior. It isn’t necessary (or productive in the long run) to try to control everything he or she says or does.

7. Kids get tired. When they do, it’s usually futile to try to reason with them to get them to do what you want.

8. Don’t say things to your own child that you would never dream of saying to someone else’s child.

9. Whatever stage your child is in, remember: this, too, shall pass, and they will move on to another stage. (This may be better or worse than the previous one!)

10. Don’t let mealtime become a battle zone. No child has ever starved to death yet because they didn’t eat everything on their plate.

11. Read to your child.

12. When your child starts talking, listen. What they say is important to them, and kids have great things to say.

13. Spend some time tucking your child into bed each night.

14. It’s good to find a church family to help you raise your child. You need others to support you. Your child needs to establish a good foundation of values and truth. If he or she doesn’t get this early in life, they might get it later and from someone else you may not like.

15. Take time every day to enjoy your child and relish this role God has blessed you with.

(Postscript: my dad says some of these are things he did, and some are things he wishes he’d done. ❤️) …

Timeline Photos"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you." – Luke 14 #SundayGospel bit.ly/2ZpzEtS…

"Arsonists have set God’s Cathedral aflame. In the Amazon rainforest, home to hundreds of thousands of animal species, 40,000 plant species, and nearly a million indigenous people, fires are raging, destroying the ecological buttresses of one of the most biodiverse and important ecosystems in the world. These creatures are a testament to God’s good creation, a living, breathing cathedral, shaped by the evolutionary forces of God, and entrusted to human hands." …

"Baby loss is not just a story of grief, of pain and of tears, its a beautiful story of love and of celebration.

So let’s scream from the rooftops that all children matter, those that are here and those that we desperately miss."I haven’t shared this picture for quite some time so wanted to post it again this evening. These are my children…the ones that ran ahead and the ones who I get the honour to raise.

Someone said to me in an interview recently well you are the mother of two, I kindly corrected them. I am the mother of 7, just because five of my children didn’t get to grow up on the earth, doesn’t stop them from existing.

I also wanted to say this…Baby loss is not just a story of grief, of pain and of tears, its a beautiful story of love and of celebration.

So let’s scream from the rooftops that all children matter, those that are here and those that we desperately miss. ❤️

I am so unbelievably touched that SO many people have liked and shared this image, THANK You. Please feel free to also like my page and see future posts and quotes, I would love for you to become a FB friend x